Effect of attachment and personality styles on the ability to interpret emotional vocal expressions: A cross-sectional study

Background: Taking attachment as its theoretical reference, the post-rationalist approach within cognitive theory has outlined two basic categories of the regulation of cognitive and emotional processes: the outward and inward personality orientations. Research on the role of attachment style in individuals' ability to decode emotions has never considered inward and outward orientations. Objective: This cross-sectional study was conducted to compare individuals with different attachment styles and different inward/outward personality organizations on their ability to decode vocal emotions. Methods: After being assessed for attachment and personality styles, a sample of university students performed an emotional-decoding task, and their accuracy (Study 1) and reaction time (Study 2) was measured. Gender effects were also examined. Results: No significant differences in emotion decoding accuracy emerged among individuals with either secure or insecure attachment styles and either inward or outward personality orientations. Both secure and inward individuals were significantly faster than insecure and outward ones in decoding vocal expressions of joy, whereas securely attached individuals were faster than insecure ones in decoding vocal expressions of anger. Conclusion: Considering that the recognition of emotion falls within the basic skills upon which typical social interactions are based, the findings can be useful to enhance the comprehension of personality-related factors involved in the context of daily social interactions.